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'''The Lost Road''' is an unfinished story by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] in which he attemped to link the newly developed [[Numenor]] story of the [[Legendarium]] with the [[Elfwine]] story of [[The Silmarillion]] as it then stood. It seems likely that it was written in 1935-6.
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'''The Lost Road''' is the third chapter of the first section, 'Part One: The Fall of Númenor and the Lost Road', of ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]''.


The origional idea of the book came out of discussions that Tolkien had with [[C.S. Lewis]] who said that "There is too little of what we really like in stories" and they thus tried to write their own. C.S. Lewis took 'Space Travel' and his story emerged a few years later as "Out of the Silent Planet" Tolkien meanwhile took 'Time Travel' and wrote the Lost road.
==Plot==
The theme of ''The Lost Road'' is one of 'Preincarnation': there are a series of occurrences throughout time of father and son duos sharing names that are etymologically connected with [[Amandil]] ('Bliss-friend') and [[Elendil]] ('Elf-friend'). These include [[Eädwine]]-[[Ælfwine]] of Anglo-Saxon legend, [[Audoin]]-[[Alboin]] of Lombardic, through to "the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of corn and culture heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats".<ref name="Letter257" /> In the story the present pair&mdash;[[Edwin]] and [[Elwin]]&mdash;travel back through the different phases of the history of their names, eventually reaching the time of Amandil and Elendil and the ''[[Akallabêth]]'' or ''Atalantie'' ('Downfall' in [[Númenóreans|Númenórean]] and [[Quenya]] respectively) of Númenor.


The theme of the book is one of 'Preincarnation' That a father and son duo, sharing names that are etymologically connected with Elendil (Elf-friend) and Valandil (God-friend) Such as the pairs Elfwine/Edwin, Alboin/Audoin and the like. In the story the father son pair were to go back in time through different phases of the history of their names - in notes Tolkien lists them as 'Anglo Saxon. Irish legends. Prehistoric north. Belariand. Numenor.'
Númenor at this stage in Tolkien's thought was not connected with the wider [[legendarium]]. Rather it is a direct analogue of [[Atlantis]], a "legend or myth or dim memory" that had always "troubled" Tolkien and a theme to which he often returned.<ref name="Letter257" />


However Tolkien only wrote 4 chapters of the story. The two opening chapters, and two which take place in Numenor. It seems he abandoned it due to his interest only in the 'Numenor bits' and possibly the fact that he was working on  the Silmarillion at the time.
==Conception==
In the chapter "[[The Early History of the Legend]]", Christopher explains the conception of the story as a challenge with [[C.S. Lewis]] and how this was developed simultaneously with "[[The Fall of Númenor]]". It is notable that this challenge, although abandoned by Tolkien, resulted in Lewis's successful [[Space Trilogy]]<ref>David Downing. "Rehabilitating H. G. Wells", in C.S. Lewis: Fantasist, mythmaker, and poet, ed. Bruce L. Edwards, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, p.14</ref> whose [[Wikipedia:Elwin Ransom|protagonist]] is also named Elwin.


However this was not the last time Tolkien tried to intigrate the Numenor story into a time travel frame work, as he tried a second time a decade later with [[The Notion Club Papers]]
However, only a fragment of ''The Lost Road'' was ever written: the two opening chapters, and two which take place in Númenor. According to Tolkien he abandoned the story because "it was too long a way round to what I really wanted to make, a new version of the Atlantis legend".<ref>{{L|294}}</ref> He did pass the completed chapters on to Allen & Unwin in 1937 as a possible successor to ''The Hobbit'', however the publishers felt that even if finished the story was unlikely to be a commercial success.<ref name="Letter24N3">{{L|24|3}}</ref>
 
==Other versions of the legendarium==
This was not Tolkien's last attempt at integrating the Númenor story into a time travel frame work. He tried a second time a decade later with [[The Notion Club Papers]]. It was only after both these works floundered that the legends of Númenor were finally integrated with the main mythology.<ref name="Letter257">{{L|257}}</ref>
 
{{references}}
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[[Category:The Lost Road]]
[[Category:Manuscripts by J.R.R. Tolkien]]
[[fi:The Lost Road (kertomus)]]

Revision as of 18:22, 12 March 2021

"...It is a long tale..." — Aragorn
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"I shan't call it the end, till we've cleared up the mess." — Sam
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The Lost Road and Other Writings chapters
Part One
  1. The Early History of the Legend
  2. The Fall of Númenor
  3. The Lost Road
Part Two
  1. The Texts and Their Relations
  2. The Later Annals of Valinor
  3. The Later Annals of Beleriand
  4. Ainulindalë
  5. The Lhammas
  6. Quenta Silmarillion
Part Three
The Etymologies

The Lost Road is the third chapter of the first section, 'Part One: The Fall of Númenor and the Lost Road', of The Lost Road and Other Writings.

Plot

The theme of The Lost Road is one of 'Preincarnation': there are a series of occurrences throughout time of father and son duos sharing names that are etymologically connected with Amandil ('Bliss-friend') and Elendil ('Elf-friend'). These include Eädwine-Ælfwine of Anglo-Saxon legend, Audoin-Alboin of Lombardic, through to "the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of corn and culture heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats".[1] In the story the present pair—Edwin and Elwin—travel back through the different phases of the history of their names, eventually reaching the time of Amandil and Elendil and the Akallabêth or Atalantie ('Downfall' in Númenórean and Quenya respectively) of Númenor.

Númenor at this stage in Tolkien's thought was not connected with the wider legendarium. Rather it is a direct analogue of Atlantis, a "legend or myth or dim memory" that had always "troubled" Tolkien and a theme to which he often returned.[1]

Conception

In the chapter "The Early History of the Legend", Christopher explains the conception of the story as a challenge with C.S. Lewis and how this was developed simultaneously with "The Fall of Númenor". It is notable that this challenge, although abandoned by Tolkien, resulted in Lewis's successful Space Trilogy[2] whose protagonist is also named Elwin.

However, only a fragment of The Lost Road was ever written: the two opening chapters, and two which take place in Númenor. According to Tolkien he abandoned the story because "it was too long a way round to what I really wanted to make, a new version of the Atlantis legend".[3] He did pass the completed chapters on to Allen & Unwin in 1937 as a possible successor to The Hobbit, however the publishers felt that even if finished the story was unlikely to be a commercial success.[4]

Other versions of the legendarium

This was not Tolkien's last attempt at integrating the Númenor story into a time travel frame work. He tried a second time a decade later with The Notion Club Papers. It was only after both these works floundered that the legends of Númenor were finally integrated with the main mythology.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 257, (dated 16 July 1964)
  2. David Downing. "Rehabilitating H. G. Wells", in C.S. Lewis: Fantasist, mythmaker, and poet, ed. Bruce L. Edwards, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, p.14
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 294, (dated 8 February 1967)
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Note 3 to Letter 24, (dated 18 February 1938)